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Have you ever felt that being a mom was boring?

Something tells me mom and writer Julie Cook is about to get a lot of hate mail. She came out this week in the British tabloid the Daily Mail with a story about the drudgery of motherhood. The headline? "I love my son, but being a mother bores me."

G'head and hate on her ladies -- plenty of people already are -- but
I'm not joining you. For one, I doubt Cook even wrote the provocative
headline (little writer's secret here: often we don't). For another? I
happen to agree with her.

Motherhood, especially early motherhood, is awfully boring.

Of
course, I need to put in a little disclaimer here. I love my daughter
to pieces, just the way that Cook probably loves her son.

But let me give you a picture of the first few months of her life:

She slept. She cried. She ate. She pooped in her diaper. She cried. She ate. She slept.

Did I mention she ate, slept, and pooped? Oh right, and cried.

She cried because she wanted to eat. She cried because she wanted to sleep. She cried because she'd pooped.

Don't get me wrong: I was very busy during the first year of my
daughter's life what with all the feeding and diaper changing and trying
to make her stop crying. I was happy, even, to finally have this little
bundle of tears and poop in my arms.

But that doesn't mean it was interesting. In fact, I have a theory of sorts about the "watching paint dry is more exhilarating" quality of early motherhood. It's boring for a reason.

The boring same old same old is about all a mom can handle when she
hasn't had a full night's sleep in six months. That's right, we need boring. The eat, sleep, poop, cry,
later, rinse, repeat routine is something we can do in our sleep ... or
would if we actually got any. If you really think about it, it's safer
this way. We know what we're doing, and we can handle it. When things
get exciting, they also get scary. I don't like scary ... do you?

The good news for all moms, even Julie Cook? Life with a 7-year-old
is never boring. They don't actually shut up long enough for you to
snooze off.

So be honest, does Julie Cook's confession really sound that shocking to you? Were you bored?

I have 3 boys (8, 4,& 9months). The first year with each of them is (was) boring. Now that the older two have more of their own personalities, likes, and dislikes...my life has turned a bit crazier. :-p

My older son is 4, and his favorites bore me to tears. Play the SAME GAME day
after day, watch the SAME MOVIE day after day, hear the SAME JOKE, day
after day...It goes on. What can I say? My son THRIVES repetition!
When I buy him a new toy or movie or game, I ask myself "How long will I
be able to handle doing this ALL DAY, EVERY DAY?"

Of course, I
don't let my son see this. I force the smile, have my toy dinorsuar say
"ROAR! I'm going to chase you now!" 100x with the same enthusiasm,
make popcorn and talk about my favorite scene in "Rudolph The Red-Nosed
Reindeer" claymation version while he gets the DVD going. (Never mind
that it's July and we've been watching this movies since Halloween.)
Say "Soooorrrrrryyyyy" in that drawn out way that makes him giggle a
million times a week. But someday, when I want to go to a musuem and he
wants to go jet skiing or something, I might just remind him of these
times!

My younger son is 3.5 months, and he can be pretty boring, too. When he's awake it's a flurry of nursing, diapers, coos, kicking his feet, and then ZAP! He's asleep for a few hours. At least it gives me time to contemplate buying "Trouble" for DS1. It's simple, will help him learn to count, but can I REALLY listen to that die popping all the time?

Then again, my 4 y/o tells me I'm boring whenever I need to do something other than play dino-chase, Sorry, Rudolph, etc.

Motherhood as a whole boring? I can't agree with that. There's a constant flurry of activity, even if it is the same activity day in and day out. There's the constant need to plan your child's next step in life, whether it's when to buy summer shoes or take the training wheels off the bike, or something more serious like which schools to have him attend or homeschool.

My son has always been a "challenging" keep you on your toes kind of kid, so, no i've never really had the "boring" aspect of parenting However! things can get repetetive and drive me bonkers but I wouldn't ever say it was boring.

No, not at all. Never. I am always really surprised when I see Moms at CM say they are "bored"by anything, even when it has nothing to do with motherhood. I don't see how anyone could be "bored" with life. You are alive, you have things to see, books to read, music to listen to, people to listen to, places to go. I am never bored. Babies,toddlers,kids are never boring. Just looking at a baby sleeping is miraculous.

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